The most famous film you've never seen

[Incandenza]

Same how I feel about LOTR...no shade on anyone that likes it, but good god, I have no interest in watching any of them.

[G-Man]

When you say 'definitely never will', why?

I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in science fiction. I can imagine no scenario where I would be so bereft of choices that I'd watch it in absence of anything else, and I'd not choose to pit it on. That's no judgment on any fan; the series must have merit, and it is so much part of pop culture that I get most references and can answer TV quiz questions on it. But it's just not my thing.

[WOM]

Grease doesn't seem that strange, but my wife hasn't seen it either...which busts my kids up. My wife's school has even done the play, so she knows every word. And I think Glee did it, too.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I think the problem is that the hard-core fans are expecting to feel the same way they did when they watched the originals when they were a kid and are blaming the filmmakers for failing to create that feeling rather than the more obvious fact that they're no longer seven years old.

Hahahaha. If this was put on a click through screen before people made internet comments, there would have been so much more room on internet servers for cat videos and revenge porn. I didn't watch star wars until I was 18, and I agree with Reed's comment in its entirety. The new movies are a million miles ahead of the originals in virtually so many respects, except they don't have Alec Guinness, or a young harrison ford, who between them save that film.

[WOM]

Anyway, easy winner for me on this thread: Star Wars. Never seen any of them, definitely never will.

When you say 'definitely never will', why?

[WOM]

+1 (though it is saved on my Sky box should I feel the urge).

+2. Everyone said 'you have to see it on the big screen' and I just never bothered, then or since.

[Satchmo Distel]

Citizen Kane is still the greatest piece of technical film-making and editing in history in my view but it's a little cold regarding empathy. Nobody in the film is likable. I know that seems like an odd objection but I like my art to have a soul and I feel CK is just a little too clever and heartless.

Contrast with Casablanca, The Seventh Seal or Wings Of Desire, for example, where I feel the characters are brought closer to the viewer.

[Incandenza]

Gone With the Wind
Avatar
any Lord of the Rings films
any Marvel films apart from Black Panther
any Batman films apart from the 1989 one
Grease

[RobM]

I'm full blown never seen Apocalypse Now or any of The Godfather films me.

If I feel the urge to watch a film, which is rare then I'm more into something that will cheer me up, Coen Brothers, 70's sitcom movies etc.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I've never seen Avatar. I've no great desire to see it either.

+1 (though it is saved on my Sky box should I feel the urge).

[G-Man]

Olivia was 30+ too

Well, 29 when it was filmed. To be pedantic.And she looked every year of it once she made that transformation from '50s school-girl to late '70s disco lady by the end of the film (one of my bugbears about Grease).

Anyway, easy winner for me on this thread: Star Wars. Never seen any of them, definitely never will.

[Disco Child Ballads]

I've never seen Avatar. I've no great desire to see it either.

[Simon G]

I've never seen Star Wars - I only know what happens in it through Family Guy's adaptations (which I've been led to believe are quite near to the mark).

In fact, of the Top 20 in the list Benjm has put up I've only seen Titanic, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Incredibles 2 and Minions.

[Benjm]

Using box office receipts as one measure of fame, I haven't seen Avengers: Infinity War, fourth highest grossing film according to the Wikipedia article linked to below.

I have seen all of the adjusted-for-inflation top ten.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I think I need a list of films ranked by famousness to be able to answer the question in the thread title. I've seen very little from the past 25 years, so it'll be one from that era.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I finally, finally got around to watching Hope & Glory yesterday evening, which was mainly set in a street about 400 yards from where I was born. I seem to remember first taping it about 20 years ago but didn't manage, or care enough, to watch it before VCRs became obsolete!

I didn't think it was amazing but it had some funny moments (man with his hand trapped in the car door) and some impressive cinematography (explosion just outside the house, escaped barrage balloon) but the best thing was it's warm nature and big heart. The final scene when the school was bombed (no-one hurt, nasty teacher distraught, kids jumping around in delight in the playground) reminded me of Fritz in a Fez/Lobachevsky's wonderful tale about how his dad was part of an attempt to guide German bombers to his school during WWII.

[sw2borshch]

ET.

[ad hoc]

Citizen Kane is utterly fantastic, and deserves all the plaudits it gets. The structure of the narrative, the incredibly innovative filmmaking, the performances, the script, everything. Gregg Toland, the cinematographer, should be almost as famous as Orson Welles

[Sam]

Probably the most insightful thing I've read about Citizen Kane is that it's difficult today to see just how revolutionary it was for its time. When it was made, it used techniques that no other film had yet used. And not just one or two...but ten or twelve.

It's like Sargeant Pepper's in that it changed what music sounded like, but from a distance, it's hard to put yourself into the headspace of hearing that sound for the first time.

Another interesting thing is that, perhaps because of how revolutionary it was, when it was first released it got very few positive critical reviews. One of the few in the western world was written in the Argentine press by Jorge Luis Borges (yes, that one), who absolutely loved it, and pretty much wrote, 'no one seems to like this much at the moment, but give it a few decades and it'll be remembered as a masterpiece.'

I'd definitely agree it's worth seeing, although I enjoyed The Third Man more.

[Hot Pepsi]

Stockard Channing was 33 when Grease was filmed.

Olivia was 30+ too

Wow. I didn't know that. They looked younger than that in the film, though not 16-17.

I understand why Hollywood rarely casts actual teenagers as teenagers - the work rules rightly limit their hours - and I suppose for musicals like Grease, it helps to have actors with some experience and/or formal training. 33 is really taking the piss, but again, I think the audience has just come to accept that and is willing to suspend disbelief.

Acting is harder than it looks and usually requires experience and training to do well, even when playing a teenager. One notable exception is that Molly Ringwald was actually 16 when making Sixteen Candles and was 18 for The Breakfast Club, but the rest of the group were in their mid to late 20s.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Olivia was 30+ too

[tracteurgarcon]

Yeah. I recently saw the-making-of/oral-history-of doc. Broderick had acted with Ruck on Broadway and they had a good report so he convinced the producers to hire him. Mia Sara was the only real teenager in the group.

But by then, audiences had shown that they'd accept people near 30 as teenagers in film - perhaps not unlike the way Elizabethan audiences excepted boys or young men playing women. It's not like we didn't notice, we just went with it. The ultimate example of this is, I think, James Spader in Pretty In Pink. He was 26 playing 17-18, but appeared to be about 35 in the film.

Stockard Channing was 33 when Grease was filmed.

[Squarewheelbike]

The Wizard Of Oz.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah. I recently saw the-making-of/oral-history-of doc. Broderick had acted with Ruck on Broadway and they had a good report so he convinced the producers to hire him. Mia Sara was the only real teenager in the group.

But by then, audiences had shown that they'd accept people near 30 as teenagers in film - perhaps not unlike the way Elizabethan audiences excepted boys or young men playing women. It's not like we didn't notice, we just went with it. The ultimate example of this is, I think, James Spader in Pretty In Pink. He was 26 playing 17-18, but appeared to be about 35 in the film.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Ferris Bueller is great though. Well, Ferris is an arsehole, but the film's great.

Always worth dragging this factoid out cos we like a fact about time/age on here - the actor (Alan Ruck) who played his mate (Cameron) is now 62, having been at the time a 29 year old playing a high school student.